Laparoscopic-assisted sigmoid colectomy for sigmoid volvulus

A 75-year-old black man came to the emergency room because of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and distension and obstipation. An abdominal radiograph revealed a sigmoid volvulus. This was nonoperatively reduced in the emergency room. Following a mechanical and antibiotic bowel preparation, the patient underwent elective exploration. We report, for the first time, operative treatment of sigmoid volvulus with a laparoscopic-assisted sigmoid colectomy and primary anastomosis. Because of dense fibrous scarring of the sigmoid mesentery produced by chronic mesosigmoiditis, the redundant sigmoid was exteriorized and resected extracorporeally. A stapled, side-to-side, functional end-to-end anastomosis was constructed. The patient experienced little postoperative pain and virtually no postoperative ileus. We believe that laparoscopic-assisted sigmoid resection may offer distinct advantages for the treatment of the typically elderly, debilitated patient in whom sigmoid volvulus develops. Furthermore, because of the characteristic mesosigmoiditis associated with sigmoid volvulus, we suspect that exteriorization and extracorporeal resection may prove the easiest and most rapid laparoscopic approach to this disease.